Wood is leading research to make nuclear decommissioning safer, faster and more cost-effective by innovatively applying new technologies developed in space exploration, car production and medicine.

The company has secured approximately £1.5m funding from the UK’s government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Innovate UK after winning a prestigious competition to find the best new ideas.

Wood and its supply chain will combine new data and control systems with state-of-the-art robotics to design a demonstrator system for cleaning and dismantling highly radioactive rooms or ‘cells’ at Sellafield in Cumbria, UK, Europe’s most complex nuclear site.

The technologies used in Wood’s project include novel material handling solutions to reduce the risks of working at height, mixed reality headsets, a multi-fingered gripper allowing robots to grasp different objects, and a navigation system designed for missions to Mars that enables autonomous mapping where human access is impossible.

Bob MacDonald, CEO of Wood’s Specialist Technical Solutions business, comments: “Our innovative proposal for a fully remote solution removes the operator from a hazardous environment and is adaptable enough to tackle different tasks, many of which present unique challenges.

“Wood’s role is as an innovation integrator, bringing together ingenious ideas from industry and academia to define a new approach to the nuclear decommissioning challenge.”

Melanie Brownridge, the NDA’s head of technology, said the response from suppliers and academic institutions had been so promising, that the total amount available to the five chosen projects has been increased from £3m to £8.5m.

She added: “We were all incredibly excited by the quality and diversity of the submissions, which came from established nuclear organisations as well as industries working with us for the first time – such as space and defence sectors.”

Wood is a global leader in the delivery of project, engineering and technical services to energy and industrial markets. We operate in more than 60 countries, employing around 55,000 people, with revenues of around $10 billion. We provide performance driven solutions throughout the asset life cycle, from concept to decommissioning across a broad range of industrial markets including the upstream, midstream and downstream oil & gas, power & process, environment and infrastructure, clean energy, mining, nuclear and general industrial sectors. We strive to be the best technical services company to work with, work for and invest in. www.woodplc.com